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1. Bounty Missions - How do I solve these? How do I know which pirate to fire upon (yeah, I hit all I encounter, but there're pretty many in 3 sectors)

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Baddies usually like to roam around in packs. So, if you encounter a lone pirate hanging around at a nav point, chances are it's the guy you're looking for.

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2. I.R. and F.F. Missiles - I can't get them to work, they just fly straight forward. All I can use is H.S. Missiles, but I've got a feeling the others are stronger

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IR (Spiculum Image Recognition) missiles are basically considered the best missiles in the game. You just lock onto a target (hit the "L" key), and a rhombus should appear around the target (inside the square), meaning the missile has locked on. Fire it, and it should track the target with relentless effectiveness.
FF (Pilum Friend-or-Foe) missiles: I never used them in Privateer, but in Wing Commander 2, they were basically of the "fire and the forget" type. You just fired the thing, and it would automatically look for the nearest enemy.

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3. ECM - What does it do? Seems like all missiles hit me, whether I have it or not...

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According to the manual, ECM gives you a 15/25/35 % chance (depending on the level) that an enemy missile fired at you will fail to lock on, thus just flying in a straight line instead of tracking you.

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4. I've heard there's a way of taunting yourself out of battle. Which enemies can I do that with? (certainly not Retros, I guess)

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Basically, one of the "taunts" in your taunt list (usually number 4) is always something along the lines of "I suck, I'm not worth it, don't kill me". Basically , the more a guy hates you , the longer will it take for you to convince him to stop shooting you. And even then, his buddies will still continue their attack, and you have to get them to cease fire too.

This greatly helps getting the bounty hunters to like you again after having to fight them at Palan.
It's hardly effective against pirates though (as they're probably gonna hate you A LOT later in the game, and it would take ages to convince them to stop attacking, much longer than for you to pulverize their puny Talons) , and Retros and Kilrathi can't be your friends at all (for obvious reasons) , i believe.

Edited by - Oxymoron on 13-02-2003 22:43:46

Edited by - Oxymoron on 14-02-2003 01:01:01

Answers for you Thad
These were my strategies and others may have different or better ones.

1. Just kill them all at the wp's. That is why it is best to wait and get your ship upgraded well before you do a lot of bounty hunting. Sometimes you will not know if you have killed the pilot with the price on his head until you return to base. But I think now I remember something about the missons changing color in your computer on the ship when a misson was completed. That is why I just killed everything that was hostle to me at the wp's. Now the specail "fixer" missons must be completed before you land anywere else unless the mission tells you to do that.

2 F. F missles should only go after the nearest enemy ships. They are very useful when in a big heated battle with lots of ships attacking you all at once. With I. R. missles, you need to get a "lock" on the enemy ship before they will work. This takes a few seconds. They are excellent when fighting a single tough enemy ship.

3. ECM's are very useful later in the game when you upgrade to a higher level of EMC. At the lower level EMC's the reduction of missles hitting you is not very much. Most of them are still going to hit you.

4. I never used tauting to take the heat off my butt...I just blasted them out of the space! But rememeber...I played Privateer very slowly and was in no big hurry to finish the game...so by the time I got to the really tough enemies...I had a awesome ship to deal with them! This is the way I will play Freelancer also...slowly at first.

If I have left anything out or have some things wrong..I hope some other Privateer fans will correct me. I have not played Privateer for a long time.

Edited by - WhiteTiger on 13-02-2003 22:45:41

I talk about Privateer more than I play it these days, but I certainly know the answers to all your questions. I won't repeat anything others have said, but I do have this to add:

First, the "diplomatic" comm choice is almost always option 3. (Option 4 is the taunt.)

Second, I prefer the FF missile because it has the highest flight velocity. That it also does the most damage is nice, but its true advantage is that it jets out of your field of fire quickly, so your gunfire is less likely to hit the missile as it leaves the launcher. You should always stop shooting for just a bit after a missile launch, but with the FF missiles you don't have to pause very long.

I have also found that with FF's if you lock a target you get an instant missile lock and the missile homes in on the "locked" target, not the nearest. Moreover, the "advertised" behavior of "fire and forget" isn't all it's cracked up to be; if you fire it without a lock the FF missile seems to miss most of the time. Lastly, you might need a threat-detecting radar for the FF missile's threat-recognition system to work properly. All Hunter and B&S radars have this capability.

Final note about missiles: Fire two at an enemy head-on for a quick kill. In a Centurion I only ever use missiles when fighting in an asteroid field, but in a Tarsus you'll need to fight like a wildcat almost every battle.

Watch your radar for red blips that stop moving. When a hostile stops moving on radar it's probably coming directly toward you, which means if you're fast enough you can twist your ship around, lock, and fire two missiles, and maybe get a quick kill -- then you can go back to dogfighting your original opponent without the unwanted company on your 6.

The best place to take bounty missions are in systems with only one jump-point. Also you may flee from any groups of hostiles you encounter; a bounty target always flies alone. The best way to run from non-bounty hostiles is to have a threat-recognition radar. When you see more than one red blip, put them in the radar field designated "rear" and hit the afterburners. You will already be close to the edge of their "patrol range" so they'll stop chasing you before they even get close.

Know when you have the option of running. I don't like to run, personally, but I like to be aware of whether I can. If there are friendlies in the system put them between you and the enemy then run for it. If you're trying to leave a nav point and the enemy is over 8k units distant, turn your ship away from them and jet out of the area -- you'll make it. If all you want to do is jump out and your opponents aren't close enough to stop you, burn all the way to the jump point then turn 90 degrees just before you jump -- if the enemy DOES get close enough to take pot-shots they'll hit the less-critical side armor of your poor old Tarsus. But most importantly get a feel for when you can run -- your opponents will move away from you as they set up their attack runs, so sometimes you can make a break for it after a quick feint.

Patrol is best in the Perry system because the "random encounters" are all Militia and Confed, so you only fight what you get paid to fight.

Here's how it works: all nav points normally have ships of random factions in them. These are "reset" every time you enter that system. (Confed is there when you jump out; immediately jump back in, there's the militia.) All nav points have different probabilities for different factions based on their system and their location within that system. (The Tingerhoff system has more confed at the Perry jump-point and more Kilrathi at the Palan jump point, and more Kilrathi in general than the Capella system.)

"Missions" assume control of a single nav point and set a specific encounter for it which is determined at the time the mission computer is activated. Even "patrol missions" only really have one nav point, even though you're required to fly through several. Overlapping mission Nav points are prohibited for all missions except cargo runs -- that means if you take 3 patrol missions for the same system, 3 different nav points have been assigned specific encounters. However, as every patroller quickly learns, most every darn nav point seems to be loaded with bad guys you have to fight. The "random encounters" are a bigger cost than the real ones!

That's why Confed HQ is such a great system to patrol: if you take 3 patrol missions, you'll have exactly 3 hostile nav points. If you take one patrol, you'll have no more than one hostile nav point. The only hostiles you'll encounter are the ones you've been paid to fight.

Heh, that's a lot more information than I thought I'd dispense ... I hope some of it proves helpful. Good hunting!

Thad I'm sure if one of the others already mentioned this, but your radar needs upgrading just like your ship hardware. It's been a long, long time, but it's just possible that if you don't have the radar that differentiates between friend on foe, then the smart missiles won't know who to attack.

Heh... didn't know where my thread had gone at first...
Thanks for all nice replies!

I actually figured Bounty missions myself... just zap everything until the mission orders in the Nav window turns dark red. Lock-on? I didn't know about that one

I've started playing the storyline, without looking at walkthrough, and its really cool! Especially the dialogues. Centurion is must-have, though...
Died for the first time in a story mission, a really tough Kilrathi gang in Delta Prime chased me into an astro field, and I went for a quick jump. Afterburners on max, you figure the outcome. But I'll try it again.

What gun type is recommended? I wield 4x Tachyon Cannon in front, plus 2x Neutron in turret. Can I gain any more by mounting Plasma or Ionic Pulse?

Thadlerian

Hi everyone, i've been lurking here for a while.

I've just been playing Privateer again recently on my old computer

IMO the tachyon cannon is the best gun, good damage and fast fire rate. the heaver hitting guns fire too slowly for my liking. as for turrets, i only use them to mount a tractor beam on.

on another note, does anyone have problems with garbled audio? my gunshot sounds are garbled and it happens to the speach intermittently. Its an old p133 with a SB16. I never remember it doing that.